Actaeons to think about

Actaeon myth

I.D.R. in Grafton and Most, The Classical Tradition, s.v. “Actaeon”

Ovide moralisé  3.336-675 (early 14th century): OGCMA0017Actaeon_OvideMoralise
Actaeon allegorized as Christ.
            The heroic victim is wounded, killed, and heroized as in the Passion and Resurrection
           
Boccaccio, Ninfale fiesolano(mid-14th century): OGCMA0017Actaeon_Boccaccio2
            Actaeon pursues Diana deliberately, as a knight would in courtly romance.
                She is a divinity sworn to virginity, divine purity.

Jacopo Sannazzaro, Arcadia (1504): OGCMA0017NOTActaeon_Sannazzaro
            Much as Boccaccio’s

Giles of Viterbo, Sentences according to the Mind of Plato (1506-1512): OGCMA0018NOTActaeon_Giles
            The Christianized myth of Actaeon has deliberately Neoplatonic slant
            Cf. Giles’ other La caccia bellissima dell’amore(The Most Beautiful Hunt of Love) (1506): OGCMA0018NOTActaeon_Giles2
                        Diana is an allegory for the human soul, Actaeon a philosopher searching for traces of divinity.
                        When Actaeon sees the goddess, his soul is elevated to a higher level

Giordano Bruno,  De gl’eroici furori (On Heroic Frenzies) Part 1, dialogue 4: OGCMA0019Actaeon_Bruno
            Further development of Giles’ ideas: Actaeon as philosopher.

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night 1.1.18-22 (1600)” OGCMA0019Actaeon_Shakespeare
            Duke of Orsino is plagued by unrequited love for Olivia (he makes himself Actaeon, her Diana).


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